Divinity: Original Sin Post-funding Update #46: Editor News, Stats and Orcs

While I’m sure the list of 10 things you probably didn’t know about orcs is the highlight of the latest Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter update, our readers are probably also interested in this video about the editor (which is apparently coming out with the alpha of the title), and this preview of the primary and secondary stats post-Kickstarter campaign (which gave the team the chance to focus more on balancing than on their previous projects).

Without further ado, let’s dive into the orc-talk:

• Orcs live in tribal societies in which the females of the species are the natural leaders. Physically they are just as strong as the males (except for exceptionally large orc behemoths), and they are mentally far superior to them.
• A curious and as yet unexplained phenomenon among orcs is that far fewer females are born among them than males. This makes them very precious, and if need be, scores of male orcs will willingly perish to save the life of a single female, be the cause war, famine, sickness, or any other threat.
• Orc females’ heightened importance because of both their rarity and their superior intellect is the main reason–most anthropologists agree–for their role as leaders among the orcs. Over time, highly ritualised protocols have arisen around their chieftaincy. Indeed, the main god of the orcs being Amun-Hor (the All-mother), females are worshipped as mortal avatars of this supreme deity. Orc sculpture, though exceedingly primitive to human eyes, almost always depicts the female figure in idolised form, and it is never quite clear whether it is supposed to represent Amun-Hor, a specific chieftain, or possibly both at the same time.
• A single female commands tribes that can consist of as few as a dozen male orcs to well over fifty of them. Though they obey any other female, they are always fiercely loyal to their own overlord (or to be more precise: overlady). The highest status a male orc can achieve is to be elected Consort, i.e. the chosen of the tribe.
• Once every year, during midwinter, a chieftain chooses a male from among her tribe to mate with so that she can give birth in the spring. No higher honour can befall a male orc than to be chosen, and for the duration of exactly one year he is known as the Consort, which entitles him to greater liberties; limited command over his fellows; the choicest spoils of war; the best cuts of meat; etc., that is to say, the second best of course, for the best invariably goes to the chieftain. (Indeed, like lions, but with the genders reversed, during meals everyone looks on until the leader of the pride has filled her stomach to satisfaction. Only then do they eat what is left. In lean times, that may mean they have but carcasses to chew on.)
• A female will usually choose her Consort based on his physical prowess, his bravery in battle and his natural cunning, which allows him to survive in the cutthroat world orcs live in. Because of the esteem and the perks that come with this elevated status, the post of Consort is highly sought after and competitiveness often ends in bloodshed. Females actively encourage the ‘locking of horns’, for it helps them to determine which of her orcs is worthy of her, and more importantly, has demonstrated possession of the necessary qualities that must be passed on to subsequent generations.